


Blight

by dogmatix, norcumi



Series: Through a Mirror Darkly [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton
Genre: Depression, GFY, Gen, Mission Fic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sith, Sith Obi-Wan, Sith Qui-Gon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 15:30:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13103151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix, https://archiveofourown.org/users/norcumi/pseuds/norcumi
Summary: The mission wouldn't be so bad, if only Obi-Wan could stay focused.





	Blight

Their destination was deep into the Outer Rim, and the journey there was long and tedious. Not many Jedi typically ventured out that far, into the wilds where pirates and patches of unexplored space could make a ship disappear, never to be seen again.

Their ship was ambushed by a group of such pirates, but even that failed to get much of Obi-Wan’s attention. Qui-Gon dispatched six of the eleven boarders without much effort or compunction, took three prisoner, and managed to clip the pirate vessel’s door so that the disengaging ship trailed crystalized flecks of atmosphere for a moment before the emergency shields kicked in.

Obi-Wan eyed the headless pirate corpse closest to him as he disengaged his lightsaber. He thought he should probably be feeling some remorse, or excitement, or something. Instead, all he felt was tired.

It was strange, how that exhaustion dogged him, no matter if he snuck in a nap during quiet moments of the trip, nor if he lay awake for hours, staring up in the dark as if he could see the ceiling. That didn’t seem right either, but after everything else going on, he refused to whine to Qui-Gon about it.

The day before they were due to arrive, Obi-Wan stared blankly at the datapad in front of him. It held the information pertaining to their mission. The planet was a fairly standard habitable world, mostly grasslands and forests in the habitable zone, no real deserts, and its main export was some kind of metal. Their mission was a diplomatic one, to defuse the tensions between the different groups competing for resources. Miners, farmers, and the native Lurmen had been at an uneasy peace for a century now, but it seemed that conflict was escalating again, and the Lurmen leader had requested Jedi intervention.

That was all Obi-Wan had managed to retain, and he knew he’d read it at least five times. He was distracted, and he knew it, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it but push it away. He knew he should ask Qui-Gon for help, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It was all such a mess in his head; Garen’s death, Bruck’s expulsion, Siri being picked by Dooku, the sheer helplessness of it all, the fact that Siri’s situation was his fault, no matter what Qui-Gon said.

No, he didn’t have time for this now. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he tried again to banish the welter of emotions to the back of his mind. He had to be prepared for the mission, or he’d have another failure on his conscience. Opening his eyes, he dived determinedly back into the mission summary.

* * *

Obi-Wan stood half a step behind and to the right of his Master, as they descended the ramp to meet the planetary delegations. The Lurmen were…smaller than he expected. Also wetter.

The winds were steady and mild, pushing the clouds along at an unhurried pace. Descending through the misty layer had posed no problem for their ship, but as the landing pads were out in the open, the delegation members awaiting their arrival had been exposed to the elements. The gaggle of humans had set up a makeshift tent to keep themselves dry, but the Lurmen stood under the downpour without protection, bedraggled and dripping.

A human stepped forward with a second human holding an umbrella over her as Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon stepped out from under the belly of their ship. “I am Governor Blaun. Welcome, Master Jedi.”

“I am Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is my padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Qui-Gon said, indicating Obi-Wan.

“It is an honour to meet you both. Please, come this way,” Governor Blaun said, gesturing towards the tent and large speeder that sat at the other end, ready to whisk them away.

“Thank you, Governor Blaun,” Qui-Gon said with a shallow bow. “If you will excuse me a moment though…” Turning away from her, he walked over to the two Lurmen at the head of their group.

The one with bracers and an elaborate cloak stepped forward. “Master Jedi. I am Chief Tok Naa, of the Green Leaf Clan. I speak for the Lurmen in this matter. We welcome you to our world.”

This time, Qui-Gon’s bow was a bit deeper, and his expression more open as he replied, “We are honoured to be here, Chief Naa, and we hope we may be of assistance to you.”

“Now,” Blaun butted in with forced jovialness, “I’m sure we all want to get out from this rain and reconvene somewhere dryer. Master Jedi, if you would?”

Qui-Gon put a hand on Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “Go with the Lurmen,” he murmured.

Confused but compliant, Obi-Wan nodded. “Yes, Master.”

“Chief Naa, I look forward to seeing you again shortly. My apprentice will accompany you in the meantime,” Qui-Gon told the Lurmen leader, and they bowed at each other again.

Obi-Wan stepped forward as his Master went with the humans, offering his own greetings, and this time the second head Lurmen was introduced; wearing bangles instead of bracers, and with feathers woven into his cloak, Tee Watt Buu was the Druid of the Long Branch Clan. Obi-Wan remembered from the briefing that each Lurmen clan was led by a Druid and a Chief. It seemed that they’d gotten more cohesive since the information was last updated, if they now had speakers for all the clans as a whole.

The miners had bundled Qui-Gon and the rest of their group into three sleek speeders, which wasted no time heading for the spaceport’s tower, but then veered off to the side. “Where are they going?” Obi-Wan blurted out.

Watt Buu snorted in derision. “They’re going to the Humans’ central hall. It will take us a mark to walk there.”

“You have no other transport?” Obi-Wan asked without thinking. Even as the last word left his mouth, he wanted to kick himself. Obviously they didn’t, and calling attention to the insult he now realized that the miners were offering the Lurmen group was…not a good way to start the discussion.

“No,” Druid Watt Buu said shortly.

“We live in the forest,” Tok Naa said, not looking at anyone as he walked. “We travel between trees more often than on the ground. Our temepurs would be as awkward on flatland as we are, and little faster.”

Their gait was a bit awkward, Obi-Wan noticed. This time he was smart enough not to bring it up. “I see,” was all he said.

“Sending this cub with us,” Watt Buu muttered.

“If Jinn had come with us, it would have offended the humans,” Naa said, wearily.

“Teach your mother to climb trees,” Watt Buu snarled. “I’ve been dealing with the humans since before you were born, Tok!”

“And I appreciate your wisdom, but the Jedi made the right call.”

It turned out that a mark was three-quarters of a standard hour. It felt a lot longer.

* * *

Their reception had been a deliberate insult to the Lurmen, and that continued through dinner. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were offered seats with the humans, while the Lurmen representatives were seated at a table off the raised dais, away from any important conversation with the Jedi. Obi-Wan made eye-contact with Qui-Gon and raised an eyebrow. His Master flicked his gaze towards the Lurmen’s table, then back to Obi-Wan, and nodded. Obi-Wan inclined his head in acknowledgement. Politely, he turned down four increasingly vexed offers to be seated with his Master, staying with the Lurmen delegation, who began to...not rally around him, exactly, but they were clearly aware that ‘their’ Jedi was refusing to abandon them.

Pulling the short, rounded seat out of its spot, Obi-Wan seated himself cross-legged on the floor by the Lurmen’s low table, keeping himself level with the smaller beings as they sat. They still smelled vaguely of wet canine fur, but that was hardly their fault, and Obi-Wan by this time honestly preferred that to sitting next to the human representatives, who seemed to be assholes all around.

The Lurmen were more willing to discuss their situation after that, and Obi-Wan found out as much as he could over dinner, although he was faking at least some of his interest, the apathy that had settled over him still dragging at him. The reason the Lurmen had called for Jedi aid had to do with their forests, which were dying. It seemed a bit trivial, as reasons went, but Obi-Wan dutifully committed it to memory to report to his master later.

He politely took his leave after dinner, to join Qui-Gon in the sleeping quarters they’d been assigned, and the two Sith spent the evening discussing the situation. Qui-Gon ruminated on their information for a while, then told Obi-Wan to get some sleep.

“And you, Master?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I have a feeling we still don’t have the whole picture,” Qui-Gon said. “I’m going to investigate around the city, see what I can find out.”

“I can accompany you...” Obi-Wan said, without any real enthusiasm.

“No. I need someone here in case there are any developments, and you could do with some sleep.”

Obi-Wan knew he should feel annoyed instead of relieved, but now was not the time to bring up a situation when he wasn’t even sure what was wrong. “Yes, Master.”

He didn’t sleep, at least not well or for long, but finally fell into an exhausted doze after the middle of the local night.

He disliked the bitter undertaste of caf, but drank three cups of it to get himself moving the next morning, feeling sluggish and tired next to his Master. Qui-Gon had had an interesting night, but didn’t have the chance to tell Obi-Wan about it before they were called down for breakfast. Much to the human faction’s displeasure, the two of them cut short the pomp and circumstance to request a closer inspection of the Lurmen’s forests.

Obi-Wan was glad he only had to follow his Master’s cues on that particular diplomatic dance. He knew they were extricating themselves from the humans, who were trying to monopolize the ‘Jedi’ to their own ends, but couldn’t quite follow how Qui-Gon was doing it with a minimum of hurt feelings. Well, it was getting done. He supposed that was all that mattered.

It was the first occasion Obi-Wan had had, to see his Master being diplomatic. He was quite good at it, which surprised Obi-Wan. He watched Qui-Gon converse easily with the Lurmen, even bringing the Druid Watt Buu around to being less hostile, and couldn’t decide how he felt about a Sith being so affable and compassionate; on the one hand, it was no surprise at all, on the other, it made him want to scream. Frustratingly, he couldn’t figure out why. Even worse, this felt like it was becoming a constant in his life: the haze that wasn’t quite exhaustion, highlighted by events where everything seemed confusing with explanations just beyond his reach.

Throughout it all, Qui-Gon watched him with little sidelong looks, which just made him feel like he’d done something wrong, again. He wished it would just stop, or he’d actually get scolded for whatever it was, but there was never a peep about _anything_.

Qui-Gon managed to acquire a speeder for them, possibly by shaming the human miners into the minimum decent behavior. Seated in the back, Obi-Wan made polite conversation with the four Lurmen sitting beside him, while Naa and Watt Buu shared the seat up front. As the trip wore on, it quickly became clear that the Lurmen must have traveled several days on foot to get to the mining settlement, and Obi-Wan found his estimation of the humans dropping even lower. He was distracted from his thoughts as they entered a series of hills, and the Lurmen beside him packed to their window to see the trees that rose steadily the deeper they went. The underbrush eventually became too dense to allow for the speeder, and they had to disembark. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for the Lurmen to take to the tree tops, but Naa and Watt Buu and their escort remained on the ground with them.

The trees rose quickly to tower above the small party, and Obi-Wan re-evaluated his thought about how trivial their mission was. Oh, he’d seen pictures of forests, and there’d been short trees in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, as well as scattered trees during previous missions, but seeing it now, like this, was different. The trees towered above them like giants, turning the sunlight cool and green as it filtered down through the canopy. All around them, life flourished, and when Obi-Wan let his senses reach out, he felt the Force move through it all like a swirling river, bright and strong. His foot caught on a root, pitching him forward, and he would have landed flat on his face if Qui-Gon hadn’t caught him by the elbow and steadied him.

“Thank you,” Obi-Wan said, face hot.

“Forests and jungles are often distracting,” was all Qui-Gon said, understanding in his eyes.

There were no further hiccups on their journey to the Lurmen village, although calling it a ‘village’ was a bit of a misnomer. The houses weren’t permanent structures the way the humans’ skyscrapers were, but they were impressive. Each large tent was built on and around the trees, and they looked ready to be dismantled if needed. Large, many-legged animals grazed placidly on the canopy leaves, their fur brown and grey to blend into the background, with feathers and woven vines and cord tied around necks and legs as decoration. These must be the temepurs Chief Naa had spoken of.

It felt like the grey haze of the past few days had lifted somewhat, and Obi-Wan looked around the village with interest. It quickly became clear that this was more than one village – the Sith’s visit had coincided with a gathering of clans, or perhaps the clans had gathered because of their visit. Dinner was a much livelier (and tastier) affair that night, though Obi-Wan politely skipped the finger-sized roasted worms.

After they’d eaten and talked with the gathering of clan chiefs and druids, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan retired to the tree-tent they’d been offered, there to discuss what they’d found so far. There were four main groups involved in the situation. First were the Lurmen, whose forests were suffering from a tree blight that was slowly but surely infecting and killing large swaths of their home. Then there were the miners; humans ran the mines, and had the largest share of resources and wealth, while a mix of humans, twileks, and human-twilek hybrids made up the bulk of the actual miners, who had little wealth and were starting to make their displeasure known in the form of strikes and protests. Qui-Gon judged that the situation wouldn’t take much to boil over into violence. Then there were the twi’lek farmers, whom they had yet to meet. The farmers had settled the grasslands, and provided locally grown food for the mining cities and towns, and traded with the Lurmen.

The Lurmen suspected that the miners or the farmers were responsible for the tree blight, since their agreements stated that the Lurmen’s territory was demarcated by the forest boundaries, and both the miners and the farmers stood to gain from the Lurmen’s loss – the farmers would have more land for farming, and the miners might have found a deposit that they couldn’t otherwise legally touch, although the Lurmen admitted they had no proof of that.

“Well, that’s why we’re here,” Qui-Gon said, as he and Obi-Wan finished their recap of the situation. “We’ll test the trees tomorrow, to see if we can verify any of the Lurmen’s suspicions.”

“Yes, Master,” Obi-Wan said, settling in for the night. He’d felt much better today than the previous week. Maybe he’d just needed a good mission to get him out of his funk. It’d all work out fine.

The next day dawned cool and bright, and they set out for the blighted trees right away. They were instructed to leave their cloaks behind, which seemed like an odd but harmless requirement, and the Chief Naa and Druid Watt Buu had also shed their mantles and finery. Beside the four of them, only the handler of the temepur they were to ride was to go along with them. The temepur was even larger seen up close, easily able to take three Lurmen and two humans. It seemed placid enough, but Obi-Wan approached it with caution, still remembering the previous large animals he’d run into on the way to Bandomeer. Those had tried to eat him. Chief Naa guided him and Qui-Gon up, showing them where the handholds were in the twisted ropes and vines that circled the great beast. They rode on its back, their 'saddles' little more than the same kind of hand-holds they’d used to climb up. The temepur moved through the treetops with ease, though the motion was quite unlike a speeder's. Its multiple sets of arms, set in pairs along its flank, made for a kind of rippling movement as it grabbed a branch with one gripping hand, then let go just as the next hand in the row grabbed it in the same place, while the first hand moved on ahead. It was far faster than they'd been able to achieve at a walk, yesterday.

It was a small group, as only Chief Naa, Druid Watt Buu, and the temepur's handler went with them. They traveled for a while, leaving the gathered clans behind until there was only the susurrus of a light breeze through the treetops, and the intermittent cry of some kind of avian. Underneath it all was still the ever-present Living Force, twining through the trees, the animals, the ground, even the Sith and the Lurmen, like a low, warm hum, coming from them and returning to them. Then they reached the blight, and Obi-Wan, sunk deep into the Force, felt the Living Force change, grow muted.

Opening his eyes, he hissed through his teeth. The underbrush was still dense and dark green below them, but the trees had mottled leaves and a strange yellow growth that seemed to be pushing out from under the bark. Where the temepur had flown through the treetops with ease, it now picked its way gingerly along the branches, rumbling in the back of its throat.

Coming to a halt, it rumbled again. "This is stop," the guide said in Basic, as she patted the temepur along the back of its spine and regarded the trees with narrowed eyes. "Too close blight."

"Wait here," Chief Naa said, and led the way down, dropping from branch to branch, which the Qui-Gon followed with ease, and Obi-Wan…managed.

Druid Watt Buu brought up the rear. Continuing on foot, the four of them moved deeper into the blighted area, soon reaching a line of burnt earth, with even the underbrush scorched away.

"What happened here?" Obi-Wan blurted out.

"Fire break," Chief Naa said, glancing back at him.

"Someone tried to burn down your forest?" Qui-Gon asked.

Druid Watt Buu snorted. "Yes, us. The blight is not new - every few years, we find a stand of trees infected with it, and burn it out. But fire in a forest can be deadly, so first we must clear an area, wet down the green forest, and remove the underbrush, then we burn with the wind." He gestured at the trees, and now Obi-Wan could see that the area between the burned and unburned trees had had all the branches chopped off, and in some areas, entire trees had been felled and dragged into the more blighted area.

"You can predict the wind?" Obi-Wan asked.

"No. The blight- the old blight, did not move fast or spread easily. We could wait weeks or more to do a burn."

"And that is no longer the case," Qui-Gon guessed grimly.

Chief Naa shook his head. "That was the third firebreak. When it failed, and when no-one else on the planet would help, I decided to contact the Jedi."

* * *

At the trees, Qui-Gon did every test he could think of, including spending several hours meditating at the base of one. He questioned the Lurmen further about the original blight, the new blight, any specific conflicts they’d had with the miners or the farmers, any signs of unusual activity, and on and on. Nothing useful turned up, nor any sign of foul play, though by the end of the day, Obi-Wan could identify a blighted tree by a simple glance at a leaf.

“Perhaps the answers we seek aren’t to be found here,” Qui-Gon said, squinting up at the top branches of one of the trees.

They returned to the temepur, and before being allowed back onto the beast, were given small flasks of a viscous liquid to rub their hands and the outside of their boots with. It was to kill the taint of the blight, and set off another barrage of questions from Qui-Gon. Druids, it turned out, were the ones who made the liquid, but the knowledge of it was secret, and not to be shared with those not initiated into the ways of the druids. Qui-Gon tried to bring Watt Buu around, but the most he could get out of the Lurmen was that Qui-Gon would be allowed to plead his case before a gathering of all the clans’ druids.

Obi-Wan was left alone in their quarters after dinner, while Qui-Gon went to gather information, again. Obi-Wan leaned back against the tree that made up one wall of their tent and sighed, missing the Temple with a hollow ache. That wasn’t exactly right, either. He didn’t miss the Temple, itself, not with what had happened there, not with Garen, and Siri. He missed the way it had been, even with Bruck bullying him. The certainty that everything would work out, the support of his teachers, the uncomplicated friendship of his crèchemates.

Qui-Gon woke him for breakfast, handing him a bowl of hot porridge, and brought him up to date. It turned out that while the blight killing salve seemed to work, it was impossible to create enough of it quickly enough to treat even a small fraction of the affected trees. Obi-Wan scowled into his breakfast – why couldn’t Watt Buu just have said that on the trip back?

They had a full day ahead of them, starting with more travel. First, on a temepur, to get back to their speeder. From there, they took the speeder out into the plains, leaving even Chief Naa and Druid Watt Buu behind. Obi-Wan tried to shake off the apathy that was creeping back in, but with less and less success.

Their first stop was a little collection of houses and an inn that doubled as a general store, post office, and everything else a small group of farmers needed. They arrived about an hour before sunset, and ended up talking to some of the twi’leks, mostly women. The men were still out in the fields, although they started coming in around sundown.

Initially suspicious of two travelling humans, they were quickly won over when they found out the newcomers were Jedi, and seemed to talk freely after that. While the twi’leks were dismissive of the Lurmen, and didn’t like the miners much, they didn’t seem to be hostile or looking to actively damage the Lurmen’s trees. Obi-Wan said as much to Qui-Gon later that night, and his Master frowned and nodded.

“That was my impression as well. If the blight originated from here, these people don’t know about it.”

There were several settlements like this, but it would take weeks to check each cluster individually. If Qui-Gon felt that the one closest to the forest was a reliable indicator of the others, then Obi-Wan would follow his lead on it. “So…now we ask the miners?”

“Correct,” Qui-Gon said, grinning under his moustache when Obi-Wan groaned.

“More travel?” Obi-Wan asked. He didn’t mind travel, but they’d been doing a lot of it, and his backside and legs were getting a bit stiff and sore.

“Indeed. Think of it as…sightseeing.”

Obi-Wan shot Qui-Gon a dirty look and grumbled under his breath, but he knew there was nothing for it. The mission required that they travel, so travel they would.

For the next two days, they were either meeting with a representative of a mining corporation, waiting to meet one, or travelling to meet one. Obi-Wan tried to contribute, and he did pay attention and even formulated some questions to add to the discussion, but Qui-Gon did most of the heavy lifting during the talks.

“It’s not them either, is it?” Obi-Wan asked, lying face-down on his bed after a long shower.

“It doesn’t seem that way,” Qui-Gon said, tugging his newly acquired shabby tunic into place. “It’s a long shot, but I need to check that it’s not the miners.”

“Isn’t that was we just did?”

“Not the overseers, the people who actually do the mining.”

“Oh.” Obi-Wan felt a bit stupid, but mostly he felt exhausted.

“Rest, apprentice. I’ll be back in the morning.”

* * *

Morning came too early for Obi-Wan’s liking. Qui-Gon led him through a moving mediation, the smooth forms of the kata focusing his grumpy mood into something more useful.

“What’s next?” Obi-Wan asked over breakfast. “If we can’t find who’s responsible, do we go back and start from the beginning?” He hoped not.

“No,” Qui-Gon said, looking thoughtful. “I think it’s time to call in the experts.”

“Master?” Obi-Wan asked, confused.

“The AgriCorps.”

"The- the AgriCorps?" Obi-Wan stuttered, shields clamping down immediately out of pure habit as his heart lurched.

"The problem is plant-related so, yes, the AgriCorps," Qui-Gon said, not angry or dismissive, just matter-of-fact.

"Oh." Obi-Wan turned away, wishing for a cloak he could tuck his hands into.

"Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon's hand on his shoulder stopped him, and he turned to face his Master, expression as neutral as he could make it. Qui-Gon spoke, and Obi-Wan nodded when his Master paused. He knew vaguely that reasons and platitudes were being said to him, but his brain refused to hold any of them, dropping them like a bad signal.

He just had to make it through this. If he could get to his room, get away from Qui-Gon's gently concerned look, he could fix this, could get control of the torrent of emotion that filled him to bursting after days of drought.

There was a whine in his ears now, and his heart raced. He surreptitiously wiped his sweaty palms on the hem of his tunic. "Of course, Master," he said, when Qui-Gon stopped speaking. "I understand," he said, understanding nothing.

Was he supposed to be having all these emotions? Was this a result of Sith training? If it was, did his difficulty stem from not being suited to being a Sith? Was he a failure at this, as he was at being a Jedi? No, he couldn't bear that. He had to get himself under control, he just _had_ to. Then he'd be worth Qui-Gon's attention and effort. All he had to do was fix himself.


End file.
